Marie Henri Mackenzie

biography

Marie Henri Mackenzie was born in 1878 in Rotterdam and was employed at an oil company; initially painting was only a hobby. For a short while he took art classes at the Rotterdam Art Academy, but due to financial reasons he returned to the trading business. He traveled frequently for work and visited Russia, England, Scotland and Germany. After living in England for several years, he moved back to Amsterdam in 1910, where he lived in a large house with his own studio. In his ample free time Mackenzie concentrated on painting. He roamed the streets of Amsterdam and made many sketches and drawings, which he later used in his oil paintings. He also had a wide circle of artistic friends. The year 1917 saw the start of a long friendship with prominent artist Breitner, who gave Mackenzie painting lessons and strongly influenced his work. So much was his influence that in the past many paintings by Mackenzie were thought to be Breitner’s. Even works documented as Mackenzie’s paintings were transformed into forgeries of "Breitners," as it was easier to change a signature than to copy a whole painting. Amsterdam served as the background for most of the paintings and drawings by Mackenzie. He exquisitely rendered the atmosphere of urban life, with its canal houses, boats, roads, canals and ports. As with Breitner, dark tones dominated Mackenzie's color palette, with browns and grays, and accents of red, blue or yellow.